In
order to become successful readers, students need to understand
phonemes and
develop phoneme awareness.This goal is
best achieved through explicit instruction in the classroom.This instruction will allow them to better
understand that written words are made of sounds and those sounds are
phonemes
that are mapped onto letters.They also
need to know the correspondences associated with the phonemes.The easiest phonemes to teach beginning
readers are short vowels because they are commonly heard and are found
in all
words.Through this lesson, students
will review e=/e/ and practice the vocal gesture associated with that
phoneme
through a series of exercises.They will
use letterboxes to write and read /e/ words.

Materials:

·Chart
with tongue twister “Ned fed Ed red eggs and he fled the shed” on it.

·Letter
Manipulatives in baggies

·Letterboxes
(Elkonin boxes)

·Large
manipulatives and letterbox

·Multiple
copies of the book Pen Pals by Shelia
Cushman. Educational Insights. 1990.

1.This lesson would start by explaining to the
class that reading words is mapping sounds (phonemes) to letters.The /e/ sound one of the sounds that the
letter “e” makes and we call that short e.To help us remember this sound, think of your old aunt or
grandmother
that is old and cannot hear very well.She might say /e/ or make the short e sound, like this (model
for the
class).Let’s practice that sound
together and when we say it, cup your hand behind your ear like this
like you
are trying really hard to hear me.Ready. Good Job.Let’s keep
practicing when we say our tongue twister “Ned fed Ed red eggs and he
fled to
the shed.”

2.
Now practice words with the students that have /e/.Ask them to name words that they think have
that sound and write them on the board.“Now that you have given me some words, lets practice some more.Take out your letterboxes and the letters in
your baggies.We are spelling some short
e words using these letterboxes like we have in the past.Remember to put only one sound in each box,
like this (modeling the correct way on the board with large
manipulatives).Let’s practice one
together.Everyone spell bed
([b][e][d]).”As the students are
spelling the words, the teacher would walk around and check to see that
each
child has spelled the word correctly and correctly scaffold those who
have
not.Have students keep spelling
words.Start with 3 phoneme words like,
bell, den, end, and fed and then move on to 4 phoneme words like fled,
send,
and rest.

3.
Then have the students read the words that they just spelled.“Now I am going to spell the words that you
spelled earlier and I want you to read them to me.Ready.”Then spell the words that the students spelled.You might want to do them in a different
order for a challenge.As the read the
words, make sure that they recognize the /e/ in the words and that they
have
grasped the concept.

4.Next, have the students read Pen
Pals to reinforce the learned
correspondence.You can read the book as
whole group or in small groups.I would
have them read in small groups so that you can better check for miscues
by just
listening or by keeping a running record.

5.
For assessment for the lesson, you could give the students a worksheet
with
words on it, some with /e/ and some with other correspondences (pen,
bed, cat,
shed, dog, pig, egg, can).Have the
students circle or color the pictures that have /e/ in the words and
leave the
others alone.Use this worksheet to
check for mistakes and see if further instruction is needed or if the
students
are ready to move on to the next correspondence.